They should praise Sony so it will push Canon or Nikon to design better cameras. Competition is healthy for consumers.

Kind of an odd statement considering there has never been a Sony DSLR anywhere near as performant or as universally praised as the Nikon FF or APS-C bodies of the last 5-6 years. Same with the Canon 5D II or III, which Sony in spite of it's quality sensor design, has not been able to match yet.

Perhaps people should push Sony to make better lenses and bodies, so that they can one day hope to compete with the big boys like Nikon and Canon. Even though Sony purchased some great glass from Minolta, we see that without the help of Zeiss, Sony seems to struggle designing lenses that can compete with the best of Canon and Nikon. With a lens catalogue of only 35 lenses, with nearly half of them APS-C lenses, it's doubtful that Sony will be a huge challenger to Nikon or Canon, both of which offer lens catalogues of over 140 lenses each.

There is a lot to like about Sony DSLRs which are often packed with interesting technology. Some do question the decision to drop the optical VF in favor of the STL technology (Think Sony a900 with it's large bright OVF). Sony adopting all STL EVF designs is a decision that may or may not help Sony's position relative to Nikon and Canon. I'm thinking the latter.

As far as the RX100, it has a good sensor and good video quality, but as a camera, as an enthusiast camera it's really nothing special (Yes I have owned an RX100). Poor macro performance, no hot-shoe, no VF, slow 4.9 max aperture lens at full tele (f13.4 DOF in 135 terms), soft lens with halation glow at f1.8 at 28mm, sluggish performance, not at the same level of Nikon 1 for AF speed or AF tracking, etc. These are all some of the reasons that many, including DPR, like the RX100, but don't love it. If pocket-ability with good IQ is your main criteria for a camera, the RX100 is a good choice. If you need a bit more from your camera, there are much better choices.

Time magazine has relationships with tons of advertisers including Sony. The "best invention of 2012" was written to sell cameras, plain and simple.